Honetwell & X10 Alarm System Opinions

[David E. White]

I'm in the process of looking for a wireless alarm system that I could
install myself plus it would be nice if it had some home automation
features as well. I've seen the Honeywell system that Sears sells plus
I've looked at some X10 systems like IBM Home Director etc. I really
have no experience in X10 but it seems the modules are inexpensive and I

like the fact that I could add on incrementally and kind of experiement
without spending alot of $$ up front.

However, what I do really want is a RELIABLE home security system. The
last thing I want is something that would generate a false alarm in the
middle of the night and scare the hell out of my wife! The Honeywell
sytem refers to it's high relability (400mhz frequency?) but I don't
know enough to tell if that's marketing hype or not. I don't want to
spend $600 on it and find I could have accomplished the same thing with
X10 that was just as reliable, more flexible, and cheaper.

Can anybody offer some advice on the merits of the two systems?

Thanks,
Dave White

[Steve Huseth]

I'll mention a couple of things that may help. The Honeywell system has
supervised RF sensors with an open field range of 800 feet which is double
any other retail RF out there. This is important when you are trying to get
it to work inside an actual house. The other big difference between the
Honeywell system and Home Director is that the Honeywell system is a
security system with lighting rather than a lighting system that can
respond to sensors. It has built-in knowledge about how a security system
should work where as Home Director you are on your own to program the
security behaviors. Honeywell also came out with several new sensors that
leverages this design of Freeze, Flood, and CO that you wouldn't want to
trust to a system where the PC needs to be up and functioning for it to
work. Hope that helps.

Steve

David E. White <whi...@concentric.net> wrote in article
<34BD6587...@concentric.net>...

[Jean-Claude Desinor]

>
> I'm in the process of looking for a wireless alarm system that I could
> install myself plus it would be nice if it had some home automation
> features as well. I've seen the Honeywell system that Sears sells plus
> I've looked at some X10 systems like IBM Home Director etc. I really
> have no experience in X10 but it seems the modules are inexpensive and I
> like the fact that I could add on incrementally and kind of experiement
> without spending alot of $$ up front.
>

Home Director is not an "alarm" system.

I do not know the Honeywell system, but the "X10 PowerHouse" Company also
makes "X10" brand Alarm Systems. The alarm portion does not rely on X10
technology, they use RF and the sensors are monitored. Maybe that is what
you want to compare the Honeywell system to.

The Alarm Systems made by X10 have a built-in piezo siren, will dial out
to 4 user programmed phone numbers, and send out
All-Lights-On/All-Units-Off signals when the alarm is tripped, to add to
the general mayhem. They have a limited battery backup, and make noise even
during a power failure. At that time, of course, there are no light effects
:-)

The base receivers for the alarm systems can also double as receivers for
X10 Home Automation remotes, which may explain why some believe those
systems rely on the X10 protocol for Alarm functions: they do not.

See http://www.x10.com for information

Jean-Claude